Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Scottish agency apologizes for flood alarm failure

Luke Walsh in edie.net: Homes and business were flooded without warning when an automatic system set up to send text alerts about rising water failed. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has now apologised for the fault which meant its area duty officer didn't get a text message about high water to their mobile.

The flooding happened overnight last Wednesday (19 August) in the upper reaches of the Ettrick Valley in the Borders.

The agency's gauging station at Deephope on the Tima Water, a tributary of the Ettrick Water, rose above alarm levels and warnings should have gone to several groups in the valley. However, no warnings were sent because of what SEPA describes as an 'unforeseen technical malfunction' in its handling system, which forwards alarms as text messages….

A farm on the Ettrick Water, Scotland, shot by Richard Webb, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.

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